The Mordant Wastes
In the extreme southern extent of the Dominion lie the Mordant Wastes, an inhospitable region of caustic soda lakes and flats, baking beneath the merciless sun. Daytime temperatures can reach nearly fifty degrees Celsius, while at night it can drop to zero.
Formerly a huge bay of the ocean Fathomer’s Deep, the Wastes were created when orogenesis and falling sea levels caused an isthmus to divide it from the ocean. Consequently the whole region gently inclines from west to east.
In the far west are towering aeolianite crags of the former shore containing salt caves. Travelling east, one first traverses a region of wind-driven crystal sand-dunes, then sun-hammered hardpan where the blazing sun bakes away what little moisture remains near the surface, and desert rose clusters form from barite, celestine and other bladed marine evaporites. Beyond that, the surviving creeks from the surrounding peaks feed a series of soda lakes replete with large selenite crystals and stromatolites. Leaching iron from the surrounding rocks, these waterways assume a vermillion hue. Replete with carotenoid-rich halobacteria, the lakes themselves are incarnadine. The lakes finally drain into the ocean in thundering falls many kilometres high.
Despite being so inhospitable to life, the region is home to both unique peoples and ecologies. Some plant life survives near the streams and lakes, or xerohalophyte succulents like Shardblooms, in places where the water table remains sufficiently near the surface. Others germinate, blossom and set seed over the space of a few short days, triggered by a rare rainstorm. Their seeds then lie dormant in the sands for the many decades until rain next falls.
Trading in the rare herbs, minerals and animal products they harvest from the region, the nomadic Serefolk travel in caravans crisscrossing the Wastes. Having habited this desolate place for millennia, their culture has evolved survival strategies for a place all others would find intolerable. Bogg, S Jr. (2013) Principles of sedimentology and stratigraphy, Fifth Edition, Harlow: Pearson Education UK Warren, JK. (2016) Evaporites: A Geological Compendium, Second Edition, Springer
Formerly a huge bay of the ocean Fathomer’s Deep, the Wastes were created when orogenesis and falling sea levels caused an isthmus to divide it from the ocean. Consequently the whole region gently inclines from west to east.
In the far west are towering aeolianite crags of the former shore containing salt caves. Travelling east, one first traverses a region of wind-driven crystal sand-dunes, then sun-hammered hardpan where the blazing sun bakes away what little moisture remains near the surface, and desert rose clusters form from barite, celestine and other bladed marine evaporites. Beyond that, the surviving creeks from the surrounding peaks feed a series of soda lakes replete with large selenite crystals and stromatolites. Leaching iron from the surrounding rocks, these waterways assume a vermillion hue. Replete with carotenoid-rich halobacteria, the lakes themselves are incarnadine. The lakes finally drain into the ocean in thundering falls many kilometres high.
Despite being so inhospitable to life, the region is home to both unique peoples and ecologies. Some plant life survives near the streams and lakes, or xerohalophyte succulents like Shardblooms, in places where the water table remains sufficiently near the surface. Others germinate, blossom and set seed over the space of a few short days, triggered by a rare rainstorm. Their seeds then lie dormant in the sands for the many decades until rain next falls.
Trading in the rare herbs, minerals and animal products they harvest from the region, the nomadic Serefolk travel in caravans crisscrossing the Wastes. Having habited this desolate place for millennia, their culture has evolved survival strategies for a place all others would find intolerable. Bogg, S Jr. (2013) Principles of sedimentology and stratigraphy, Fifth Edition, Harlow: Pearson Education UK Warren, JK. (2016) Evaporites: A Geological Compendium, Second Edition, Springer
Type
Desert
Owner/Ruler
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